Historic Baker Island Light (1987)

[KRAN-behr-ee] is a town in Hancock County, incorporated on March 16, 1830 from a portion of the town of Mount Desert. In 1849 it annexed additional land from that town to complete its current area.

The 200 acre cranberry marsh on Great Cranberry Island influenced Governor Bernard in 1762 to name the town, which is composed of this and four additional islands: Islesford, Baker, Bear, and Sutton. Sutton  was purchased by Ebenezer Sutton in 1755. Cranberry Island is part of Acadia National Park.

Dorothy Simpson put it most eloquently:

The name “Cranberry Isles” is poetry with a Yankee accent.  We think of the cranberry as a purely New England fruit, a paradox, like all New Englanders, with its bite and its warm rich bloom of ripeness. So the Cranberry Isles are New World cousins to all the isles of history and mythology: the Spice Islands, the Fortunate Islands, the isles of Greece, and Vachel Lindsay’s “wizard islands of august surprise.” (p. 199)

The town lies at the entrance to Somes Sound, the fjord that splits Mount Desert Island, just south of Northeast Harbor. Recently fewer than 200 year-round residents have inhabited the islands and in 2000 that number dropped to less than 130, but recovered slightly to 141 in 2010. Access is by State of Maine Ferry Service from Southwest Harbor. (Tolls)

Congressional Medal of Honor recipient:

Civil War

ANDREW B. SPURLING

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The map below¹, in addition to illustrating the islands of this community, displays in pink the 250-foot buffers generally required around sensitive areas, such as lakes, ponds, streams, marshes, and essential wildlife habitat.  There are three regularly-scheduled passenger-only ferry services to the Cranberry Isles, plus three water taxis. See http://www.cranberryisles.com/ferries.html (accessed March 5, 2014)

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<== Up West                                                            Downeast ==>

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Form of Government: Town Meeting-Select Board.

Additional resources

Barrett, Louis G. Cranberry Isles Sketches. Islesford, Me. Islesford Historical Society. c1997.

Dwelley, Hugh L. Pioneer settlers of the Cranberry Islands: the Gilleys of Baker Island and Islesford, Maine. Islesford, Me. Islesford Historical Society. 1998.

Dwelley, Hugh L. A History of Little Cranberry Island, Maine. Islesford, Me. Islesford Historical Society. c2000.

Komusin, Bruce. The Asa D. Stanley House: built ca. 1857-1863. From reminiscences of Omer and Annette Mountain. Great Cranberry Island, Me.? Great Cranberry Historical Society. 1997.

Locke, Marie and Nancy Montgomery. Memories of a Maine island: Turn of the Century Tales & Photography. Orono, Maine. Maine Folklife Center, University of Maine. c1998.

¹  Maine. Department of Agriculture and Conservation. Maine Forest Service. “Statewide Standards for Timber Harvesting in the Shoreland Area Map” for Cranberry Isles. http://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/policy_management/water_resources/sws/maps/tabloid/SWS_tabloid__Cranberry%20Isles.pdf (accessed March 5, 2014)

*Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Augusta, Me.   Text and photos from National Register of Historic Places: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/xxxxxxxx.PDF and http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/photos/xxxxxxxx.PDF

Baker Island Light Station: 88000046.PDF
Bear Island Light Station: 88000043.PDF
Islesford Historical Museum and Blue Ducks Ships Store: 80000224.PDF

Simpson, Dorothy. The Maine Islands in Story and Legend.

Spurling, Theodore L. Ensign Ben Bunker, Mount Desert, and the Cranberry Isles. Islesford, Me. Islesford Historical Society c1991.

National Register of Historic Places – Listings

Baker Island Light Station

[Baker Island, Acadia National Park Islesford] Standing at the summit of Baker Island, this Light Station is a relatively complete example of an 1850s Maine complex. The station at Baker Island was established in 1828 as a guide to the south entrance to Frenchman’s Bay and Mount Desert Island. Its strategic location as a navigational aid is emphasized by the number of coastal communities in the vicinity as well as its role in guiding vessels along the coast between the lights at Saddleback Ledge to the southwest and Petit Manan to the northeast. It was the first light station established in the vicinity of Mount Desert Island. [Deborah Wade photo]

During the late 19th century the Baker Island Light guided the many vessels that came to Mount Desert bearing tourists for the resorts at Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor and others.  The tower continues to serve as an aid to navigation under the supervision of the Coast Guard. The keeper’s house and ancillary buildings have been transferred to Acadia National Park as has the entire island. The station’s distinctive character embodies mid-19th century light station design and construction.*

Bear Island Light Station

[Bear Island, Acadia National Park, Northeast Harbor] Bear Island Light Station was established in 1839 as a guide to Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island.  (See Mount Desert for more, including photos.)*

Islesford Historical Museum and Blue Ducks Ships Store

[Little Cranberry Island Islesford] The Blue Duck Ships Store and the Islesford Historical Museum are significant for their association with the history of Little Cranberry Island. The Store is a surviving artifact of the 19th century fishing village on the island. The Museum represents the efforts of both the permanent residents and the summer population to preserve a collection devoted to the history of the region. These two buildings commemorate an earlier period in the Acadia region, before the decline of sailing ships and the coming of the affluent summer colony transformed the economy of the area. The Blue Duck Ships Store was built in 1850 either by or for Edwin Hadlock , then a third-generation store owner and resident of the island. The Blue Duck was operated as a ships chandler by Edwin’s two sons, selling provisions, supplies and equipment for at least 25 years.*

The maritime business seems to have ceased operation about 1875, but the store continued as the Islesford Market, a general store for local islanders. George Hadlock was the last member of his family to own the Blue Duck and about 1912, converted the interior of the first floor into apartments. Within the next few years he sold the Blue Duck to William Otis Sawtelle, a Haverford College physics professor who summered on the island. Sawtelle, who founded the Islesford Historical Society, first used the Blue Duck in 1919 to house and exhibit the collection, and as the headquarters of the Islesford Historical Society. It served this purpose for approximately nine years until the collection was transferred to the new Museum in 1928. It was also Sawtelle who named the building “Blue Duck.” The Islesford Historical Museum built in 1927 contains deeds, maps, engravings, papers, and artifacts related to the early history of the Acadia region. The collection also includes artifacts of the region’s cultural history including furnishings, tools, photographs and scrapbooks. The records of the active schooner that carried cargoes from the Cranberry Isles to ports all over the world cover about one hundred years beginning in 1796. There are also genealogical records of many families, descendants of original settlers.*